Thursday, June 26, 2008

Transitions

Today's Mood: On Edge. (more bad news on the cancer front.) Today's Music: Viva la Vida- Coldplay. Today's Writing: IFFY chapter something. Today's Quote:
The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at least, when a professional writer doesn't do anything else but write. He doesn't have to write, and if he doesn't feel like it, he shouldn't try. He can look out of the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks. Write or nothing.[....] Two very simple rules, a. you don't have to write. B. you can't do anything else. The rest comes of itself." Letter to Alex Barris, an interview by mail 18 March 1949

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I struggle with transitions--both in the real world and in the writing world. As far as the real world goes, you'd think after 16 years I'd get used to the switch from work (in a school) to summer vacation, but every year I go through a strange phase of not knowing what to do. I make lists--lots of lists--and then lose them or stack them in a pile somewhere and never find them until one or two weeks after school as started again.

And I find transitions in my writing just as hard to accomplish. Characters get stuck in endless conversations or enter a room full of people and then I can't get them out. I tried making lists for that too: bomb goes off, MC blacks out, MC bolts out the door, it's past every one's bedtime, the cops show up and everybody runs..... The black out idea appealed the most. Then the MC could just up in a new room and I'd start from there. But how many times can a person black out?

Any advice? Comments? Snarky insights about life?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

V.S. Naipaul said that, to get his characters from one scene to another, he had to put them on a bus. So others have certainly struggled with transitions. I find it helpful to think about movies and how free they feel to cut from one scene to the next without showing how a character got out of an endless conversation, etc.

smcelrath said...

Hmmm, I like buses, maybe I'll give it a try. : )

But the movie thing might work better. So, if I complete a chapter that took place on a Monday, but nothing really important happened until the next Monday, I can just start the next chapter with "The following Monday...."?

Mike said...

I agree with what Carol says. I never feel a need to describe a moment by moment blow by blow for my characters. Now, I finished reading Richard Ford's "Lay Of The Land" a month or so ago - and he spends 400 pages describing the few days before Thanksgiving, so we are given exquisite detail of his every waking moment, including those in the rest room. But for the most part, I never feel that kind of attention is necessary.

Another example: In Miles Davis' band of the late 1950s he had a great sax player - John Coltrane, who was known for his extensive solos. Miles once asked him why he played so long. Coltrane responded by saying "I don't know how to stop."

Miles replied, "Take the horn out of your mouth."

DJW said...

OK, am I missing something here? Sarah, what do you mean by "more bad news on the cancer front?"

smcelrath said...

Deborah,

I took my mother-in-law to the doctor and they told her the CAT scan showed another spot on her lung. Last year she had the lower lobe removed because of cancer. Before that it was colon cancer. Before that it was leukemia. Somehow it always comes back.

Mike said...

Sarah,

I totally missed the 'cancer' comment. Sorry to hear about your mom. I'll keep you both in my thoughts and prayers.

Mike

Mark Wolfgang said...

Re: cancer coming back: yes, it usually does. We have a neighbor who's been in the battle for a year or more.

My thought on transitions is to get them over with. "Wicked" is good at it. I remember a Sue Grafton alphabet book that stuck us in Kinsey's head 14/7, every waking second, including waking up to go to the bathroom in the night. It think it was the last installment of the series I ever read. --Mark

Mark Wolfgang said...

Obviously, that previous note should have said "24/7". To say nothing of ever second of every minute of every 24. --Mark